SELECT YOUR LANGUAGE

Meet Rebekah in Third Lake

Updated:Sep 2,2014

Rebekah, age 16

I am a happy person, and love reading and adventure. I am a Christian, so my reason for being is to honor God with how I live my life. I also love astronomy and anything to do with space and space travel.

I was born with pulmonary stenosis. I had two balloon valvuloplasty procedures (at age 1 ½ and again at 3); then I had an open heart surgery at age 4. (They had to remove my pulmonary valve). This was while my family was living in Japan. Now we live in the US and I see a pediatric cardiologist every two years, so he can check my heart condition.

Currently I have no restrictions on my everyday activities. One day I will need an artificial valve. But because of research, that valve can be implanted by a catheter now and not open heart surgery.

I, and other kids like me, can live a healthy and normal life. A few years ago, I got to go to Space Camp in Alabama, and this summer, I went to a camp in Colorado, where I was able to hike and climb up a mountain. I enjoy all kinds of adventure activities too, like rock climbing and white water rafting.